North Shore Golf Magazine Spring 2017

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NSGolfMag.qxp_Layout 1 3/2/17 2:01 PM Page 8 Links to the past >>> Hungry sheep did the “mowing” when Essex CC opened. Thomson incorporated in 1945 and purchased the Nahant Tennis Club the next year. On June 19, 1938, Nahant Tennis had hosted the wedding reception for Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s son John and Anne Lindsay Clark. (The couple was married at Union Church, also in Nahant.) Anyhoo, TCC moved to North Reading in 1961. The club had been looking at land in Middleton but settled on two parcels (combined 196 acres) on Route 62. On Aug. 29, 1961, TCC purchased the two parcels – the larger one (180 acres) from Huntington Realty Trust. The trustees of Huntington Realty Trust? Jerry Angiulo, Michele Angiulo, Frank Angiulo, Donato F. Angiulo and Nicolo Angiulo. All lived steps away from the church where FDR's son was married. Whatever became of those Angiulo boys? • • • • The Francis Ouimet Scholarship Fund honored Nick Price, winner of three major championships, twice-leading money winner, three-time captain of the Presidents Cup International team and a Golf Hall of Fame member, Monday March 13 at its 66th annual banquet. It seems just like yesterday that the late Buddy Young, a real character and low-handicap golfer at the United Shoe/Beverly Golf & Tennis Club, and Price had a run-in at 1992’s Million Dollar Challenge in Sun City, South Africa. Young was official scorer, then tournament director for the NEPGA for many years. He was a stickler for the rules. He served as tournament director for the South African PGA Tour for two years and made a well-publicized ruling against Price that might have cost the golfer a huge payday. Playing for a million dollar first prize at the Sun City event, local hero Price and David Frost were battling for the third round lead when Price found an advertising billboard in his line on the 11th fairway. The week before in a skins event Price was competing in, also in South Africa, that type of billboard had been ruled a temporary movable obstruction. He assumed the same rule would apply in the Million Dollar Challenge, so he had it removed. Big mistake. The Challenge rules committee had declared such billboards unmovable. So, at the end of the round, with Price and Frost apparently tied for the lead with one round remaining, Young was obligated to assess Price a two-stroke penalty. Price, one of the finest, best-liked gentlemen in professional golf, lost it. He erupted, erased his signature and departed. Young had no recourse but to disqualify Price who had not signed or returned his scorecard after the round Frost shot a 3-under 69 that final day to take home the million bucks. • • • • Patty Berg played an exhibition match at Thomson and gave an instructional clinic in the early ‘70s. Her playing partners were head pro Bill Flynn, Alice Berry of Wakefield and another woman. Berg and Flynn both represented Wilson Staff. "Tee it high and let it fly," one longtime member remembered Berg saying over and over. Berg is in the World Golf Hall of Fame and won 63 pro tournaments. No woman has won more majors than Berg (15). • • • • Exhibitions were fairly common back in the day. Bart Brown opened the 18-hole par-3 Middleton Golf Course in 1966 and practically from day one he sponsored free Saturday clinics that were extremely popular. Renowned teaching pros Bob Toski and Peter Kostis were among those who hosted such clinics, with hundreds attending. The legendary Walter Hagen shot 83 in the ceremonial opening match when Kernwood CC opened in 1913. Francis Ouimet, Jesse Guilford, Fred Wright and Larry Gannon 8 >>> spring 2017
NSGolfMag.qxp_Layout 1 3/2/17 2:01 PM Page 9 Links to the past >>> played an exhibition when Happy Valley in Lynn celebrated the opening of its new clubhouse and second nine in 1934. In 1963, Jack Nicklaus defeated Gary Player, 67-71, in an August exhibition at Essex CC. • • • • Mike Busfield, Haverhill native and graduate of Slippery Rock College where he played on the golf team, quit his job at the family business (Busfield Oil) shortly after the first Boston Five Classic at Ferncroft to caddie on the LPGA Tour. In 1985, he was Andy North's caddie when he won his second US Open at Oakland Hills. Busfield was a lefty who played at Far Corner and other Merrimack Valley area courses. • • • • Colonial Country Club in Lynnfield became the first championship course in the country to offer night golf. But the idea was abandoned after one year, due to the pesky swarms of insects attracted by the night lights. • • • • Myopia golf members are used to seeing fox hunts roar past as they are playing the par-5 second hole. Members are on horses, of course, but there is no actual fox.The hounds follow a laid scent. Of course, polo and other equestrian pursuits predated golf, which arrived at Myopia in 1894. • • • • President William Howard Taft chose Beverly’s Evans Point (now Lynch Park) as his summer White House, spending three seasons as a regular at Myopia and Essex. The deep bunker about 50 yards short of the green on Myopia’s 10th hole is known as the "Taft Bunker." It seems the plump 27th president had to be helped from it with ropes during rounds there in 1915, and reportedly his thank-you note could be seen in the pro shop. (Thankfully, there are now stairs to help players escape from the bunker.) • • • • The North Shore is home to many “lost courses.” For example: Baker Island Club was a 60-acre island in Salem Harbor that housed the Winne-Egan Hotel, which opened in 1888. It had 50 guest rooms and catered to seekers of "health, pleasure and needed rest." Hotel guests could sail, fish, swim, play tennis or take a quick trip around the hotel's six-hole golf course. Danvers CC, founded in 1900, later called Homestead was off Ferncroft Road on the west side of Route 1. In 1901, the club moved to the current site of the Danvers Reservoir where it operated until the mid 1940s, at which time the land became part of Wethersfield Dairy. In 1952, the land was flooded for the reservoir. Delphine Golf Club was shortlived, setting up shop on the Patch Farm in Gloucester. Eastern Point GC was a nine-hole course open to the East Gloucester summer colony patrons. It opened for play in 1900. Labor-in-Vain CC was the brainchild of Richard Crane Jr., who built Castle Hill high above Ipswich Bay. World War II led to the demise of the 2701-yard, par-35 Skip Wogan-designed course. Misery Island G&CC, visible from Beverly Farms’ West Beach and Manchester Harbor, was accessible only by a boat launch. There was a casino on the island from 1913-17, and golf seemed at the time to be a simpatico pursuit. The course was described as being of “rough, rugged contour along the shore line, with hard, closely-knit pasture turf inland. Its hills and dales combine to make a course at once difficult and fascinating.” >>> In 1963, Jack Nicklaus defeated Gary Player, 67-71, in an August exhibition at Essex CC. Photos courtesy of Gary Larrabee, from his book “The Green & Gold Coast: The History of Golf on Boston’s North Shore, 1893-2001.” NORTH SHORE GOLF
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North Shore Golf Magazine Spring 2017

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